Robust cybersecurity is no longer a want, it’s a need. However, without the resources of larger organisations, mid-sized businesses can struggle to gain the necessary knowledge and funds to safeguard their data. Adam Burns, Director of Cybersecurity at Digital Guardian by HelpSystems, tells us how employing the services of an MSP enables businesses to gain access to a team of expert security experts and decades of experience.
Arguably, the most scrutinised component of any organisation’s operation is the protection and security of business data. Everyone, including the largest and most technically enabled and protected brands, through to small businesses has poured over the way in which they handle, store and protect data in the last few years, and for good reason.
According to the Department of Digital Culture, Media & Sport’s ‘Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2021’, 39% of all businesses have suffered a data breach within the past 12 months and this figure increases substantially for medium enterprises to an alarming 65%.
The SMEs in the UK economy make up around half of the turnover in the UK private sector. Coupling this with the aforementioned alarming rise in data breaches, it is imperative for mid-market companies to stay agile and reactive while safe and protected. While big businesses often have big budgets to spend on the best technology and systems to ensure their safety, smaller organisations have to work smarter to hone their information security.
Managed Security Programmes (MSPs) designed specifically to protect sensitive data are a great solution for SMEs. They can help businesses gain access to data security experts with decades of experience in a more affordable and practical way. Whether you choose to outsource or undertake it in-house, there are some key benefits of an effective MSP that will help you complement and improve mission-critical data visibility, IP protection and compliance programmes. We explain these benefits in more detail below.
Data discovery
Data discovery helps you inventory the data that lives within your business. You can’t protect what you don’t have a handle on, therefore, before you can protect your data you need to know where it is and have a truly accurate view of its whereabouts. Sensitive data information is critical to your business and its security, this data can be sat in silos or housed in areas you have no control or visibility of such as laptops, servers, network-attached storage, cloud etc.
Data classification
Data classification helps you understand what your data profile looks like and why it matters. This enables you to empower your data protection policies and accurately regulate your business data. Through data classification you can label your data to help drive data protection policies. Using a blend of content from your files such as keywords, phrases, patterns, etc. or context such as attributes of the file like application, location, user, etc. you get a more detailed understanding of what your data profile looks like.
Communication protection
Having digital touchpoints with the outside world, via various forms, can be dangerous from a data security perspective. Web browsing and email communications are the biggest culprits. It’s imperative to have control over sensitive materials and the ability to see, alert and even stop, in real-time, sensitive materials from being emailed. This is a tall order but very achievable with the right technology through an MSP.
Visibility of data movement
Keeping tabs on the movement of data and the visibility of where your data ends up and originates is a challenge for a company of any size, in particular an SME. MSPs can help you track tasks that happen multiple times in most organisations and are part of our everyday working life. These include things such as copy and paste, printing and USB/removable media.
Printing often gets forgotten as a data egress/theft vector and that is exactly why it needs to be protected. MSPs can help you see everything that gets printed and add restrictions if desired. For example, any files from finance or engineering storage can only be printed to designated printers by approved personnel, again a way of tracking and safeguarding sensitive information.
Copy and pasting is often used as a way around file data protection, instead of downloading or printing data people think by copying/pasting information they are safe from breaching data protection policies. An MSP can help you to set classification tags so that when your data is pasted into a new document, this is visible to you and you can take the necessary steps to protect your data.
USB devices (including connecting your phone) can be a great way of moving large files but can also be a risk. Once off the corporate map, you have no control of where your data goes and who has eyes on it. MSPs can help you add controls such as restricting movement only to registered USB devices or encrypting the data to stay compliant and safe.
SMEs often struggle with an effective data protection programme. Exploring the opportunities available, both as an internal team or via an outsourced fully managed service can be a simple, yet effective way to keep regulated data and intellectual property under the control of an information security programme, so teams can concentrate on their day job in a safe and compliant manner.